Improvement of power quality using adaptive shunt active filter

Problems caused by power quality have great adverse economical impact on the utilities and customers. Current harmonics are one of the most common power quality problems and are usually resolved by the use of shunt passive or active filters. In this paper, a new control design using artificial neural networks is proposed to make the conventional shunt active filter adaptive. The proposed adaptive shunt active filter can compensate for harmonic currents, power factor and nonlinear load unbalance. A self-charging technique is also proposed to regulate the dc capacitor voltage at the desired level with the use of a PI controller. The design concept of the adaptive shunt active filter is verified through simulation studies and the results obtained are discussed.